Six Left For You
by sctwilightvampwolfgal
Summary: Gabriel sincerely missed her from the very depths of his being. *Inspired off of one of the prompts from The Roses Challenge by yellow 14 from the forum he runs.*


The age of Hawkmoth had long since drawn to its close, and so he stepped here, aware that all of his past attempts might as well be called failures, and aware that this is all that there would be between them now. Gabriel paused, just to kneel, six red roses in hand, and a million questions never answered in mind.

He had no words, and perhaps that's why he'd swung by a flowershop on the way, took a little detour, because his mind still remained blank. "Emilie." He could begin, but he never could finish, so he lays them down on her grave, bearing witness to the cold isolation that nature was already leaning towards. The chill in the air had already made many leaves fall and left most trees bare, and snow could already be imagined with the bite of the weather right now.

Winter wasn't here yet, but Gabriel could feel it on its way. What would he tell her? That Hawkmoth was gone. That Adrien had already moved out and was living a completely different life than Gabriel would have imagined for their son, that Nathalie had stepped in at one point where Gabriel had failed, that he still couldn't move on.

Six red roses were an 'I miss you,' that Gabriel still couldn't choke out of his throat. He wanted Emilie back, but had accepted that that wouldn't happen, and yet he couldn't bear to say the words. It meant that she was away and for once, she wouldn't be home again. Her grave as pristine as it was felt cold under the weather, and Gabriel knew that in that way it mirrored his heart. It had grown cold in his chest a while ago and hadn't soothed. He didn't know how his heart could ever warm up or beat again; all ambition had faded when his wife could no longer support his dreams from his side anymore. All ambition but the burning desire to bring her back, and he'd let go of that recently.

He wondered if Adrien was at least happier than he was. When the coma finally beat towards its end, and the end wasn't wakefulness, nor was it the ability of Gabriel to keep dreaming that he'd be able to revive her. His dreams had died that day too. Adrien was engaged; that was something else that Gabriel still couldn't tell Emilie.

Adrien was marrying a designer that he went to school with, one that sometimes laughed at his puns, that Gabriel hadn't even realized that his son made. She smiled a sweet smile like the world couldn't possibly fall apart, and Gabriel tried not to think of how Emilie used to look even when they struggled together. She'd always smiled like that too.

Gabriel hated sometimes that he saw himself in that young designer girl and that he saw Emilie in her too. It was more than he felt he deserved anymore to think of the fact that Adrien had fallen in love with someone who bore striking resemblances to both of his parents. In other words, Gabriel knew how his son could fall for her, just like Gabriel fell for Emilie when he was about Adrien's age.

Gabriel had no open space for romance anymore. Emilie's death had taken that away from him, or her coma did at first. He reached out to touch smooth stone and still wished for warm skin or to see a smile instead. Emilie had always known how to reach his heart either with a few words or a smile or a touch. Everytime that she reached for his hand when he'd felt hopeless had reminded him to fight for his dreams, because they'd become hers too.

He knelt down, feeling how steady and slightly uneven the ground was. If only, it would swallow him up. He'd hate though to know that he'd disappointed Emilie if he didn't live long enough to support their son's marriage, to greet their grandkids and be a real grandpa. He dreaded the idea of mustering up some kind of joy when there still seemed to be a hole where a heart should be.

Gabriel stared at her name, still too numb from the cold to cry. He'd exhausted all of his tears before, when she'd first slipped into a coma, or at least that's how it had felt like. He barely breathes anymore, it seems. He hopes that Adrien never goes through this, that Adrien is not Cat Noir, and his fiancee is not Ladybug. That would be the final nail in the coffin of tragedy that has clung to Gabriel and by default his family all these years.

He can only stare, for there are so many words that won't come to mind or surface for Gabriel anymore. He misses her too much. Gabriel loved his wife with all of his very being, and he loves Adrien so, so much. If only, Gabriel could will grief away or at least give Adrien a normal family again.

Still, Gabriel has always been powerless to tragedy, even when he thought he held power. So, he just watches her grave, knowing that this will be as close to her as he can come until he dies too. Gabriel isn't sure he is ready to go when he stands, that he'll ever be ready to go, let alone that he'll have any words to say to her, anything to reach out of this crevice that his heart's locked in or that separates him from the only woman that he's ever loved this way.

I miss you, Emilie, and I know that you won't come back home again.


End file.
